Microfluidic-Assisted Synthesis of Metal—Organic Framework —Alginate Micro-Particles for Sustained Drug Delivery
Akhilesh Bendre,
Vinayak Hegde,
Kanalli V. Ajeya,
Subrahmanya Thagare Manjunatha,
Derangula Somasekhara,
Varalakshmi K. Nadumane,
Krishna Kant,
Ho-Young Jung,
Wei-Song Hung,
Mahaveer D. Kurkuri
Affiliations
Akhilesh Bendre
Centre for Research in Functional Materials (CRFM), JAIN (Deemed-to-be University), Jain Global Campus, Bengaluru 562112, Karnataka, India
Vinayak Hegde
Centre for Research in Functional Materials (CRFM), JAIN (Deemed-to-be University), Jain Global Campus, Bengaluru 562112, Karnataka, India
Kanalli V. Ajeya
Department of Environment and Energy Engineering, Chonnam National University, 77 Yongbong-ro, Buk-gu, Gwangju 61186, Republic of Korea
Subrahmanya Thagare Manjunatha
Advanced Membrane Materials Research Center, Graduate Institute of Applied Science and Technology, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taipei 10607, Taiwan
Derangula Somasekhara
Department of Biotechnology, JAIN (Deemed-to-be-University), School of Sciences, JC Road, 34, 1st Cross Road, Sudharna Nagar, Bengaluru 560027, Karnataka, India
Varalakshmi K. Nadumane
Department of Biotechnology, JAIN (Deemed-to-be-University), School of Sciences, JC Road, 34, 1st Cross Road, Sudharna Nagar, Bengaluru 560027, Karnataka, India
Krishna Kant
Biomedical Research Center (CINBIO), University of Vigo, 36310 Vigo, Spain
Ho-Young Jung
Department of Environment and Energy Engineering, Chonnam National University, 77 Yongbong-ro, Buk-gu, Gwangju 61186, Republic of Korea
Wei-Song Hung
Advanced Membrane Materials Research Center, Graduate Institute of Applied Science and Technology, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taipei 10607, Taiwan
Mahaveer D. Kurkuri
Centre for Research in Functional Materials (CRFM), JAIN (Deemed-to-be University), Jain Global Campus, Bengaluru 562112, Karnataka, India
Drug delivery systems (DDS) are continuously being explored since humans are facing more numerous complicated diseases than ever before. These systems can preserve the drug’s functionality and improve its efficacy until the drug is delivered to a specific site within the body. One of the least used materials for this purpose are metal—organic frameworks (MOFs). MOFs possess many properties, including their high surface area and the possibility for the addition of functional surface moieties, that make them ideal drug delivery vehicles. Such properties can be further improved by combining different materials (such as metals or ligands) and utilizing various synthesis techniques. In this work, the microfluidic technique is used to synthesize Zeolitic Imidazole Framework-67 (ZIF-67) containing cobalt ions as well as its bimetallic variant with cobalt and zinc as ZnZIF-67 to be subsequently loaded with diclofenac sodium and incorporated into sodium alginate beads for sustained drug delivery. This study shows the utilization of a microfluidic approach to synthesize MOF variants. Furthermore, these MOFs were incorporated into a biopolymer (sodium alginate) to produce a reliable DDS which can perform sustained drug releases for up to 6 days (for 90% of the full amount released), whereas MOFs without the biopolymer showed sudden release within the first day.
